The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and the Australian Education Union (AEU) are challenging the Australian Government to come clean on its position in the secret TISA negotiations, now at a crucial stage.

The Abbott Government’s decision to fund 15 hours of pre-school for four-year-olds in 2016 and 2017 will give temporary relief to parents and educators, but doesn’t deliver the longterm certainty required, the AEU said today.

April

Education Minister Christopher Pyne’s announcement of an increase in funding for Indigenous boarding students is a poor substitute for the hundreds of millions of dollars he will rip out of needs-based Gonski funding, the AEU said today.

March

Education Minister Christopher Pyne needs to face up to his Government’s broken promise on disability funding, and take the lead in addressing the huge levels of unmet need in the education system, the AEU said today.

New research by the AEU has found that eight-out-of-ten principals do not have the resources they need to educate growing numbers of students with disability, and that their learning is suffering as a result.

Today’s Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER) report predicting booming demand for schools and shortages of specialist teachers has exposed Education Minister Christopher Pyne’s lack of a plan to improve Australian schools, the AEU said today.

February

The value of the Federal Government’s Teacher Training Review has been called into question after media reports it has ignored its own research into the importance of high entry standards for teaching courses in compiling its final report.

Media reports today revealing huge differences in government funding for students with disability at different schools show the need for the implementation of full Gonski funding to meet the urgent need in disability education.

November

The announcement by NSW Labor that they would protect TAFE’s future by putting a cap on contestable funding if elected should be emulated by political parties and State Governments across Australia, the Australian Education Union said today.